How "Julius Caesar" Applies to Modern Society

There are a lot of themes in "Julius Caesar". One major theme that I received from it was not to ignore your conscience as Brutus did. Ignoring your conscience allows you to justify anything, because there is nothing to tell you what is morally right or wrong. Brutus would not have given in to the conspirators had he considered the morality of the issue. He convinced himself that he was doing it for the Romans, not at all for himself. But he must have been somewhat jealous of Caesar, otherwise he would have realized that this assassination would cause many problems. Brutus was too busy thinking about how he was going to be a hero to the Romans to stop and think how wrong it really was to kill Caesar. There had to be some other way of stopping Caesar from getting too much power.

Another theme in this play is to think before you act. If Brutus was thinking straight, perhaps he would not have been so easily manipulated by Cassius. He was thinking so much about being honorable that he did not even realize how much Cassius was twisting around the story. If he stepped back and analyzed the situation even once, he might have been able to prevent the tragedy from happening. This also applies to Caesar. He was so power-hungry that he did not realize that his friends were plotting against him. There are many ways that all of the deaths in this play could have been avoided, and they all involve thinking about the results that your actions might have.

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